Reigning champions, Team Delta, have wasted no time in asserting their dominance at the 2024 National Sports Festival in Abeokuta, Ogun State, surging to the top of the medals table as their quest for a fifth consecutive title gets underway.
After just two days of competition, Delta climbed past early leaders, Team Cross River, with a tally of three gold and one silver medal. The early haul was spearheaded by Confidence Onyema, who secured two golds in Kung Fu, while Favour Mike and Edirin Agha contributed a gold and a silver in weightlifting, respectively.
Team Cross River, briefly perched at the summit, now trail in second place with three gold medals – all courtesy of Kalu Ufiem, who dominated the 55kg weightlifting category with a lift of 94kg, securing a clean sweep.
The festival officially kicked off with an opening ceremony on Sunday at the MKO Abiola International Stadium, but the action began in earnest earlier at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Sagamu, where weightlifting quickly emerged as the medal-rich sport of the opening days.
The Invited Junior Athletes, a new and exciting addition to the festival, have made an immediate impact. They sit third on the table with two gold, one silver, and two bronze medals – a strong showing driven by Amarachi Chijioke’s pair of golds in weightlifting.
Meanwhile, Team Lagos sits in fourth place after Ronke Olarinoye clinched the first gold of the 2024 NSF in the women’s 45kg weightlifting category. Lagos follows with one gold and one bronze.
Teams Bayelsa and Rivers are tied in fifth position with two silver and one bronze each, while Team Oyo holds seventh with one silver and one bronze. Team Ekiti rounds out the table after collecting a single bronze medal during Monday’s weightlifting contests.
Over 15,000 athletes are competing across individual and team events, with 2,150 medals to be won in 549 events—making this edition one of the largest and most competitive in the festival’s history. The medal pool includes 626 gold, 626 silver, and 898 bronze medals.
One of the standout innovations of the 2024 NSF is the Invited Junior Athletes category, a move designed to integrate emerging talent with established competitors. This inclusion not only raises the competition’s profile but also provides young athletes a critical platform to shine nationally.
This marks the second time Ogun State is hosting the National Sports Festival, having first done so in 2006. With just a few days gone, the stage is set for another fiercely contested edition of Nigeria’s very own Olympic Games.
@ Punch
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